Friday Links Roundup: Give Away Day, Matt & Kelly, and No Alphabet Edition

Tomorrow is a busy day for us. The Lebanon Road church of Christ will host our annual Give Away Day. It is, well, just what it sounds like. Hundreds of items have been donated by our members and will be given away to people from our community who are in need. Also, about 300 bags of school supplies have been prepared to give to the children in the area. We pray that this will be a great way for folks to see how we care. Many ladies have volunteered time this week to sort the items and prepare them for the day. I’ll have pictures up next week. The amount of “stuff” is truly amazing. Such generosity!

Following that, my family will be driving to Brentwood, Tennessee, to the Concord Road church of Christ. My high school friend (and honorary Hitman) Matt Reaves will be getting married to Kelly. I’m so happy that Matt found such a sweet, Christian young lady. They will be such a blessing to God’s kingdom as a married couple.

Okay, so some sporting event starts tonight…even though it’s already started. The 2008 Olympics are underway, although we won’t see the opening ceremonies until tonight. (They happened early, early, this morning.) I’ve read that they were spectacular, and I hope things go well. I’m one of those that doesn’t like the idea of China hosting the Olympics, and I just hope that there are no major incidents. One change was made this year and, as a stickler for tradition, I don’t like it. In the opening ceremonies that you will see tonight, you will notice that the countries will not enter the stadium in alphabetical order. Greece, as always, will go first and the host country will go last. However, other 202 nations (tell me this won’t take awhile!) are walking into the stadium by the number of strokes it takes to make the character for writing that nation’s name in Chinese. That may sound cool, but I like the normal approach.

Anyway, on to the links for the week:

1. If you read this blog very much, you know that I like to read. My dad does, too, and he has written a(nother) insightful article called, “Give Attention to Reading.”

2. Matthew Morine (who I met in person for the first time yesterday and enjoyed meeting) brings an interesting perspective on Christian schools giving large scholarships to athletes who are not Christians.

3. Steve Higginbotham found a video on another blog and had to post it. It is really funny, as it deals with how often “pastors” use their wives as illustrations in sermons.

4. Those summers as youth ministers. Whew! Youth ministers who truly teach and lead young people closer to God during those precious few weeks of summer are rare, but they are such a valuable asset to the church. Justin Guin lists just some of the activities his youth group did this summer. Notice the spiritual focus of the vast majority of these events!

5. No Credit Needed gives an interesting list of things he does monthly to help with his debt reduction/savings. Most of these are simple, but are often overlooked.

Enjoy your weekend. Don’t forget the Lord on His day.

Go USA!